Life Collections: staff

Collections staff have varied research interests in the area of insect taxonomy, physiology and behaviour, and maintain an active acquisition policy. Further details of their work are summarised below, and a list of selected publications is available to download.

Research interests: general entomology; dung beetle (Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) taxonomy and ecology; British dung beetle distribution patterns; taxonomy and biology of the cockroaches (Blattaria).

Current projects include: historic collections and their types in the OUMNH; ecology and distribution of Bolivian Scarabaeinae; British oil beetle (Coleoptera: Meloidae) distribution and conservation; national organiser for the U.K. Scarabaeoidea Recording Scheme; Bornean dung beetles ecology.

Current projects include: identification and taxonomy of Fulgoridae and the collections of Henry Walter Bates.

Molly Carter Collections staff

Responsible for Lepidoptera collections.

Curatorial interests: the use of historic entomological specimens within museums and the long-term conservation of collections.

Current projects include: the re-curation, digitisation and databasing of the Lepidoptera collections, working primarily on moths.

Sammy De Grave Collections staff

Research interests: taxonomy and ecology of caridean shrimps; the genus Philocheras in Australia and New Zealand; annotated catalogue of Alpheidae of the world Phylogeny and biogeography of the genus Palaemonetes; Pontoniinae from Sulawesi.

Current projects include: ‘Once in a Whale’ the conservation treatment of 7 cetacean specimens.

Zoë Simmons Collections staff

Responsible for Arachnid and Myriapoda and Diptera.

Curatorial interests: re-curation and cataloguing of the family Erotylidae collections. Upkeep and curatorial maintenance of collections listed above and participation in the large-scale re-housing project currently underway.

Current projects include: re-housing, re-curation of the world Diptera collections; re-curation of the Arachnid collection; re-curation and taxonomy of the fungus beetle (Erotylidae) collection.

Amoret Spooner Collections staff

Responsible for Coleoptera, Hemiptera and small orders collections.

Curatorial interests: Histeridae

Current projects include: re-curation and conservation of historic entomological collections.